Continuing his pre-budget spending pledge tour, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising a $15-billion top-up as well as reforms to the federal apartment construction loan program.
Related to this loan program, Trudeau says the federal government also plans to launch a new “Canada Builds” initiative to help build more rental housing across Canada.
Styled after the “BC Builds” program, the aim is to allow provinces and territories to access federal loans to “launch their own ambitious housing plans.”
Similar to other new federal housing spending offerings, access will be dependent on meeting all of the program’s criteria, as well as a series of additional benchmarks.
In order to access this funding, provinces and territories will have to commit to spending their own money on housing, plan to build on government and vacant lands, and cut development approval timelines to no longer than 12 to 18 months.
The $15-billion loan top-up to what will now be a $55-billion fund providing low-cost financing to homebuilders will help finance the program’s aim of constructing of more than 131,000 new apartments within the next decade.
The federal government also plans to reform the program with the intention of increasing access and making it easier for builders to get shovels in the ground.
This will include extending loan terms, widening financing access to include housing for students and seniors, and allowing builders to move ahead with multiple construction sites at once.
According to a release from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Liberals will also launch a new “frequent builder stream” to speed up application times for “proven home builders.”
Since its launch in 2017, the government says this apartment construction loan program has allocated more than $18 billion to help build more than 48,000 new rental homes.
Trudeau and his cabinet have been holding daily press conferences teasing out pieces of the upcoming 2024 federal budget, which will be tabled on April 16.
So far, the budget announcements have leaned into housing as a priority—specifically “building more homes, faster”— as the Liberals try to target younger voters.
According to the 2021 census, Canadians under the age of 26 are more likely to rent than own their homes, and spend more of their paycheque on shelter than older Canadians.
